FLCC> Greene 'Cross

[Glenn Swan]

	As anticipated, Ithaca riders made up a significant percentage of the 
field at Karl Faruzel's cyclocross race in Greene. (maybe 30%?)  One of the 
fun things about racing at these sorts of events is that there are many 
little races going on within the big race, especially after a little 
pre-race trash-talk ! Karl used every square foot of school property to eke 
out the longest course ever, including roller coaster rides where you could 
ride high-banked corners, death spirals which had riders going in opposite 
directions only a few feet apart, and dastardly little off-camber hairpins 
at the bottom of descents. I'm not even sure which hill was referred to as 
the Wall of Death since the rooted, rocky descent had me wondering how much 
it would hurt if my wheels folded up at the insane speed I sometimes went 
down it, or the ego-crushing ride/run/walk-up that followed immediately 
thereafter - are we talking exciting fiery death by crashing, or just slow 
death in misery from deciding it's not worth any more effort to climb the 
damned thing ? The saving grace is that it only lasts a finite period of 
time, and if you just keep moving it will sooner or later, be over.
	I was excited to try a real 'cross bike for a change, and after doing a 
couple of practice laps, felt pretty confident that I could ride reasonably 
well on the terrain and surfaces of the event. (Thank goodness for no soupy 
mud...) The lighter bike rolled pretty well and accelerated much much 
faster than the bike I have used for years (with MTB wheels), so my 
trash-talk about pushing Andy M a little harder seemed possible. As for the 
promised thrashing of Matt Delisa, I was wondering if I hadn't stirred up a 
nest of hornets that would make me pay later. And I had completely ignored 
the likely presence of Nick Robertson. Who cares about the big guns who are 
going to run away with the overall race - we locals have bigger issues on 
our plates !
	When the gun went off a giant mob sprinted across the soccer field heading 
for the pavement section near the school. I was reluctant to get into heavy 
traffic fighting for position, but I was distressed to count roughly 16 
people ahead of me as we settled into the relatively single-file part of 
the course. Matt D was way up near the front. Andy M was only a few spots 
behind him. Scott Hannan and Nick were  ahead of me too, and Ernie was 
breathing down my neck. As I recall, I think I may have squeezed Shan M as 
we entered the first grass section too. It was too hectic to notice for 
sure.  Ithacans were certainly starting fast. I watched as a small group of 
4 or 5 just motored away from everybody, but that was no surprise, since 
the elite guys do that every week. I was concentrating on just riding right 
side up and not making a fool of myself laying it down in front of a whole 
field of riders who might just choose to ride over rather than around....I 
slipped past a few riders here and there and pretty soon I had some open 
space in front of me. The good guys were long gone, and I was near the 
front of the "ordinary people". Andy M was in sight ahead, so I set about 
slowly trying to reel him in, just like at Syracuse. It took pretty much a 
whole lap, but I caught him and rolled right by him at the top of the 
run-up, unwittingly showing him how to go faster with less effort on that 
section. We dropped a rider from Binghamton and looked to be in a race by 
ourselves for a couple of laps. Then out of the blue, the Bingo rider blew 
by us and rode away ! Andy was content to ride with me until my back 
started hurting too much to even run up the top of the hill. At that point 
Andy took off and mowed him down, leaving me alone and counting down laps 
to the finish. Each lap I would measure where I was in the death spiral 
section before seeing Karl Faruzel, Nick, Ernie and others appear out of a 
woods section. I was holding my own, and they seemed content to be racing 
against each other. I sensed that the race leader was closing in fast 
enough that I might get lapped, thereby shortening my misery by one lap. 
This was good. Even better was seeing that the Bingo rider was bonking 
ahead of me, and even though a part of me felt that he deserved the higher 
place for his efforts in the middle of the race, I decided that I would 
make a stronger effort in the last 1/2 mile and try to mow him down in his 
helpless state. (How many times has this happened to me ?) He didn't mind 
my passing him, since all he could think about at the time was oreo 
cookies...I have no idea what my final place was and I don't care. It was a 
great ride and it ended before I was  too wasted to be able to savor it. I 
got to watch Matt D duke it out in a sprint with Karl Faruzel, Steve Edgar 
take Shan Mohiudden at the line, and Ernie and Scott Hannan and Michael 
Ullberg and Mark Shenstone roll solidly in. With this many close finishes I 
am sure there are some good stories to tell. I know that Mark Shenstone and 
Bill Erickson had a see-saw battle where the MTB of Erickson was faster in 
some sections and the 'cross bike of Shenstone was faster in others, so 
they passed each other on virtually every lap. There were several Cornell 
women and a couple of Cornell guys. It looked as though there were enough 
women there to make it a real race for them. I wonder if we'll hear any 
tales of their event. As Steve Edgar and I drove back to Ithaca I could see 
Nick's car in my rearview mirror, and only imagine the enjoyment he was 
getting out of having Matt Delisa as a (captive) passenger  after 
administering a beating to him on the race course ! So the next big 
question is, "Will Matt share a ride to Binghamton with someone other than 
Nick ? Or will he keep up the trash-talk and hope to turn the tables for 
the ride home next weekend ?" Isn't this much more fun than worrying about 
winning the actual race ? Why worry about prize money and UCI points when 
you can savor the ride home ?...........
	Let's hear some other tales of the day !

Glenn